By Ayodele Oni
The Police Service Commission, PSC, has again lost a former Chairman.
The irrepressible Parry Osayande, DIG, Rtd, has passed on.
Osayande’s passing came 24 hours after the remains of former Inspector General of Police, (IGP), Solomon Arase, who was, also, a former PSC Chairman, arrived Benin, Edo State for the final rites of his funeral.
Osayande’s passing, due to old age-related issues, has thrown both the PSC and the Nigerian Police Force into another round of mourning.
A Bini Prince, Osayande passed a day before his 89th birthday. Family sources say he passed after a brief illness.
The news of his death filtered in the early hours of Sunday, September 28th, 2025.
He was the Chairman of the PSC from 2008 to 2013.
He was, also, the Commissioner of Police in the defunct Bendel State (Edo and Delta State) during the Anini saga, which terrorised Nigeria in the 1980s.
A no-nonsense Police Officer, Osayande famously chose to retire from the NPF instead of compromising a sensitive and high profile murder case in Edo State.
In 2007, President Olusegun Obasanjo dragged him out of retirement and appointed him the Chairman of the PSC. He was inaugurated in 2008 during the President Umaru Yar’adua’s Government. At the end of his five- year tenure as PSC Chairman, he rejected every plea by President Goodluck Jonathan for second term as Chairman. His reason: “Have you seen a public servant in Nigeria who is 75 years old? Don’t worry, when you need my advice, send an aircraft to pick me from Benin. I will come.”
Under his watch as Commissioner of police, the infamous armed robber, Lawrence Anini, was captured and executed during the regime of former Head of State, Ibrahim Babangida.
A Benin-based lawyer, Jefferson Uwoghiren also confirmed Osayande’s death in a post via his Facebook
account on Sunday.
He wrote: “What a remarkable life of public service. United in service of a grateful nation. United in death. Peace Profound”.
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